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Products & Services

The Products & Services list (Items panel → "Products & Services") is where you define everything you sell or buy: services (a fixed-price hour of consulting), stocked products (something you keep on a shelf), and non-stocked products (something you buy on demand and pass through). Quotes, invoices, sales orders, bills, expenses, and purchase orders all pick their lines from this list.

Before you start

  • Decide which type each item is — Service, Stocked, or Non-stocked. The type is locked once the item has stock activity, so choose carefully.
  • Have your income and expense accounts ready in the Chart of Accounts; every item maps to accounts so its documents post to the right place.
  • Set up Categories and Units first (both in the Items panel) if you want items grouped for reporting and measured consistently.

Step by step

Browse items

  1. Open the Items panel and click Products & Services. Each row shows the item code (SKU), name, type (Service / Stocked / Non-stocked), category, unit, sale price, purchase price, on-hand quantity (stocked items only), and status.
  2. Search by code or name; filter by type, category, or status.

Create an item

  1. Click New item.
  2. Pick the Type:
    • Service — no stock, no on-hand quantity, no cost of goods sold. Use for billable hours, subscriptions, fees.
    • Stocked — SolaBooks tracks the on-hand quantity and posts cost of goods sold when the item is sold.
    • Non-stocked — a physical good you buy as needed; no stock tracking, but a cost is still posted from the purchase price.
  3. Enter the Code (SKU), Name, and an optional Description. Duplicate SKUs are rejected within your organization — each SKU must be unique. Duplicate names are allowed.
  4. Pick a Category and Unit.
  5. Set the Unit Price (Sale). This is required and must be above zero — unless you tick Free item, which allows a zero price for genuinely free items.
  6. Set the Last Purchase Price (Cost) — what the item costs you to buy.
  7. Map the Sales account and Purchase / Expense account — these decide where the item posts when it appears on a document.
  8. Stocked items only: set the Inventory account, COGS account, and an optional reorder point.
  9. Pick the default Sales tax and Purchase tax.
  10. Save.

Create an item from inside a document (quick create)

You don't have to leave an invoice, bill, or any other document to add a missing item:

  1. In the document's item search, type the new item's name. If nothing matches, the search footer shows Create «what you typed».
  2. Click it. The New item modal opens — "Create it here and it drops straight into this line."
  3. Fill in the essentials: name, price, and how you use the item. The usage options are:
    • Bought to resell
    • For internal use
    • Billed to customers (direct cost)
    • Operating cost
  4. Click Create & use. The item is saved and dropped straight into the document line you were editing.
  5. Need more fields (accounts, taxes, stock settings)? The modal offers Open the full item form instead.

Quick create is available on all sales and purchase document forms.

Edit an item

You can change the name, description, prices, accounts, and category at any time. Once an item has stock activity, you cannot change its Type.

View an item

The item page shows the current sale price, purchase price, current stock (if stocked), recent transactions, and a sales history chart.

Delete an item

An item can only be deleted when it has never been used on a document and has zero stock. Otherwise, archive it — the history stays intact and the item disappears from pickers.

Service vs Stocked vs Non-stocked

Question Service Stocked Non-stocked
Tracks quantity on hand? No Yes No
Can have a reorder point? No Yes No
Posts cost of goods sold when sold? No Yes Yes
Where it shows on the P&L Income only Income + cost of goods sold Income + cost of goods sold

If stock tracking is turned off for your organization, only Service-type items can be created. See Inventory.

Pricing add-ons

Plan availability: these pricing features depend on your subscription. If you don't see them, your plan may not include them — see Subscriptions & billing, or ask your workspace owner.

  • Price lists — a named set of price overrides, assigned per customer or picked on a document.
  • Customer group pricing — a price list shared by every customer in a group (e.g. "Wholesale").
  • Pricing rules — condition-based adjustments ("customers in group A get 10% off this category").
  • Quantity pricing — tiered prices that kick in above a quantity threshold.

These are configured under Settings (Pricing & Segmentation). See Pricing & price lists for how a line's final price is chosen.

Common mistakes

  • Wrong type at creation. The type is locked once stock activity exists. If you picked Service but the item should be Stocked, create a new item and archive the old one to keep its history.
  • No cost of goods sold when selling. The item is Service type. Only Stocked and Non-stocked items post a cost — and the type can only be changed before any transaction exists.
  • Item missing from the picker on invoices. The item is probably archived — restore it from its edit page.
  • "Unit Price (Sale) is required." Every item needs a sale price above zero. If the item really is free, tick Free item.
  • "This SKU already exists." SKUs are unique within your organization. Search for the existing item — it may be archived — instead of creating a duplicate.
  • Default tax doesn't apply. Tax defaults flow into new document lines but every line is still editable. If someone overrode the tax on one line, that's a per-line decision, not an item problem.
  • Stocked item never changes its on-hand quantity. The line was entered as a free-text description, not picked from the item list. Pick the item from the dropdown so stock moves.

Tips

  • The SKU field is searchable via Global search — handy for warehouse and barcode-style workflows.
  • The item's transaction history is the fastest audit trail for "where did this price come from?" questions.
  • Unit Price (Sale) and Last Purchase Price (Cost) default the whole document line — both remain editable on each document.

Behaviour and rules

  • The item type is locked after the first stock movement; account choices can still change but won't restate existing postings.
  • An item without a sales account cannot appear on an invoice; without a purchase account it cannot appear on a bill.
  • Tax defaults flow into new lines, but every line remains editable.
  • Stocked items are costed using the weighted average method — see Inventory.
  • If you can't create or edit items, ask your workspace administrator for access.

Related

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